Righteous Kill 1 Review

By Overture Films, published by BigFish Games

Step into the shoes of Erica Dean as she investigates crime scenes in New York City. It`s a man hunt for a vigilante on a killing spree through 16 locations containing over a thousand hidden objects. With the help of Sergeant Vasquez, Erica will use clues she collects in a number of detective-themed mini games. Inspired by the motion picture film, Righteous Kill features clips from the movie and 15 animated levels.

–          Big Fish Games

Story: A vigilante is out on loose – taking his revenge on all the perpetrators of crime against women who can never be brought to book. He leaves behind enough evidence, but is hard to catch as a slippery eel. Things take a turn when it is found that the prime suspect himself was convicted for domestic assault. Detective Erica Dean must sort out why such a man would want to turn vigilante – or if indeed, he is the wanted man.

A short comment on the story. I’ve never seen the movie, so forgive any unsolicited comments – but the story in the game is unmitigated rubbish. About 30 times in the game I had to stop and think – how could the game be so dim? With a farfetched plot of planted evidences, and an unworthy cocksure detective in miniskirt who misses all the main clues everywhere, Righteous Kill has one of the worst presented stories in recent times. Mind, worst presented; the story had better capabilities, as exploited in Righteous Kill 2.

Gameplay: The hidden object games in Righteous Kill are pretty interesting and easy – at least you don’t have to search every single pixel. The graphics go a long way to help – clean and colourful. Pity there are only about 15 or 16 such locations that are played over and over again.

The rest of the puzzles include exactly three – fingerprint finding (using a duster), catch the signal (the game of trapping the player in alternating chances within the board) and find the differences. That’s all, and that’s what is repeated again and again through 15 or so chapters.

Graphics and Music: The Graphics, as I said, are clean and not very cluttered. The game includes some clips from the movie – a total of 10 seconds, actually. The rest is some sort of horrible animation with still pictures of the characters bobbing around a still background. A proper animation sequence would’ve done much to spruce up the game.

Parts of it are cool, I must agree. Like the part where 10 bullet shots pierce the screen when the game is Loading.

The music suffices, suffice to say. But in the end, there is no detective atmosphere in the game.

Bottomline: If you try to play the whole game, you’ll soon feel bored. There are the same 16 locations, same objects in each location when you click, and most of the locations don’t have any connection to the murders. The storyline, as you’ll see, is absurdly predictable, and repetitive. It could’ve been wrapped up in half the length.

All in all, Righteous Kill is a moderately enjoyable sort of game, the enjoyment coming in most cases from the easy hidden object part. In vain I searched for a single spark in the entire thing. Recommended only for the fans of the movie, otherwise skip this game.

Rating:

Righteous Kill Quick Review

I have never seen the Righteous Kill movie, so it is impossible for me to judge the game by the film standards.

As a standalone, the game functions above average. There are a few footages as narration, and others where frozen character faces are dragged from one end of the screen to another to imply animation.

The game seems easy and fun. The plot isn’t worth thinking about, it has a convenient feel of a Hollywood movie crime, so I guess it must be following the film itself. The music is good.

But the hidden object part draws your attention. It is easy to find the objects and it is, as I said, fun playing this game. Quite different from most hidden object games, perfect for the casual gamer, with no stress included.

Verdict: Try this game out at least, if not for the plot, if not for the hardcore secret agent feel, even if nothing, the hidden objects part is truly decent here.

Check out Big Fish Games for more info.